In the United States, the capitalists have devoted huge resources to liquidating the movement of the American people in opposition to the U.S. war and colonization of Iraq. Why has this failed and why is it bound to continue to fail? Because the war on Iraq, like the entire so-called “war on international terrorism,” goes against everything that makes us human.

Imagine if some major nuclear power government said your country wasn’t supposed to have “weapons of mass destruction” and at the same time claimed that it did that this meant that it could launch a second war against your country. It had already launched one a decade earlier and bragged at that time about how they had bombed your country *back into the middle ages.* (And that then they had kept sanctions on your country and no fly zones and biweekly bombings in order to keep you from rebuilding so that hundreds of thousands were now regularly dying from things as minor as diarrhea and once long eradicated diseases were coming back en masse.)

Imagine that then this government decides to launch this second war. And so they come in and start dropping 500 pound bombs on bridges and hospitals in densely populated cities the size of Houston, Seattle or Boston. They pridefully call this a “shock and awe” campaign which does accurately reflect its purpose – to prepare you for the even worse atrocities which are to come after they weaken your defenses enough to invade with ground troops.

Accordingly, they then invade and remove your government and replace it with their own people, rewrite your constitution and include in your laws provisions which say that if you resist this new status quo you will automatically be labeled a “terrorist” and treated as a heinous criminal. You see this happen to your brothers and cousins and even your friend’s grandfather who is locked up and tortured in their military “prisons.” Most of your male friends are locked up because they are automatically considered “potential” criminals by virtue of their age alone. And some of your female and male relatives are locked up and/or killed because they are actively participating in trying to defend your nation’s sovereignty to which they believe your people are entitled by right. This is the experience of hundreds of thousands of families across your country.

And so this foreign, colonial power continues prosecuting all independent political organization on that exact basis and waging 15 years (and counting) of war against the people in the hopes that they can get a functional government up and running like the British were able to years ago in India. But because this is a different time and your people are not the same, your nation is not successfully subjugated to this foreign power. So the people continue to fight for freedom, independence and sovereignty anyway. A Big Lie campaign is started against your movement to claim that it is made up of sadistic demons who are really okay with the occupation but just kill people for your jollies. This is used to justify maintaining the war against you endlessly. So that even if a functional government is never set up, your people won’t be able to seize power and forbid this foreign power from accessing your vast natural resources that are worth billions in profits every month for their private companies.

The new “government” that assists this foreign power to rule imposes martial law and institutes systems to tax the people such that you cannot even get your sick family members rides to the hospital without being extorted by the ambulance service. And by now, already 2 full generations of you and your family and you and your friend’s families have known this new colonial power as your greatest oppressor.

Do you think you will ever stop demanding independence just because lies are told about who you are and soldiers are sent to kill your family because you do it? Do you think you would expect everyone in the world who has any principles whatsoever to take your side unconditionally in supporting your demand that this foreign power and its traitorous lackeys get out of your country? I would. And, in particular, I would expect the people in that other country to target their struggle against their OWN GOVERNMENT by demanding that their OWN GOVERNMENT stop ITS crimes. By demanding that it get out of the way of my nation’s free and independent path. And by insisting on holding it accountable for carrying out its criminal invasion in the first place.